The robotics industry is on the cusp of its own “GPT” moment, catalyzed by transformative research advances. Enter Memo, the first general-intelligence personal robot, focused on taking on your chores to give back your time. Sarah Guo sits down with Tony Zhao and Cheng Chi, co-founders of Sunday Robotics, to discuss the state of AI robotics. Tony and Cheng speak to the challenges they faced while developing their technology, the innovative glove system employed to scale real-world data collection, and the impact of diffusion policy and imitation learning. Plus, they talk about their 2026 in-home beta program and why personal robots are only a handful of years away from mass deployment.

Sign up for new podcasts every week. Email feedback to [email protected]

Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @tonyzzhao | @chichengcc | @sundayrobotics

Chapters:

00:00 – Tony Zhao and Cheng Chi Introduction

00:56 – State of AI Robotics

02:11 – Deploying a Robot Pre-AI

03:13 – Impact of Diffusion Policy 

04:29 – Role of ACT and ALOHA

07:02 – Imitation Learning - Enter UMI

10:38 – Introducing Sunday

11:57 – Sunday’s Robot Design Philosophy

15:05 – Sunday’s Shipping Timeline

19:02 – Scale of Sunday’s Training Data

23:58 – Importance of Data Quality at Scale

24:56 – Technical Challenges

27:59 – When Will People Have Home Robots?

30:48 – Failures of Past Demos

32:34 – Sunday’s Demos

36:53 – What Sunday’s Hiring For

39:10 – Conclusion

Bringing new drugs to market is a costly, time-consuming endeavor. On top of that, most medicines fail at some point in the research and development phase. Sarah Guo is joined by Sajith Wickramasekara, co-founder and CEO of Benchling, a company that has not only become the central system of record for biotech R&D, but uses AI agents to assist scientists to help fix this broken system. Sajith details the roadblocks that impede drug development and approval, the “dot com” bust occurring in biotech, and how AI agents and simulation can help scientists experiment faster. Plus, they talk about China’s competitive rise in the pharma space, and the unique challenges of building an interdisciplinary culture that merges the worlds of science and software. 

Rebuild biotech for the AI era - Sajith Wickramasekara

Sign up for new podcasts every week. Email feedback to [email protected]

Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @sajithw | @benchling

Chapters:

00:00 – Sajith Wickramasekara Introduction

00:38 – Origin and Mission of Benchling

02:08 – The Drug Development Process

03:49 – Current State of the Biotech industry 

08:46 – AI’s Role in Biotech

16:14 – Benchling AI and Its Impact

18:36 – The Future of AI in Biotech 

26:28 – Debunking AI Drug Discovery Myths

28:50 – Data’s Role in Biotech

29:35 – The Importance of Tools in Pharma

31:28 – AI’s Impact on Scientific Research

34:55 – Building a Biotech Company

40:18 – Interdisciplinary Collaboration in Biotech 

43:06 – Tech and Biotech: Learning from Each Other

48:16 – Conclusion

Snowflake is moving beyond the data warehouse. Its new Snowflake Intelligence is an agentic platform for every employee, not just data teams. Sarah Guo sits down with Snowflake CEO Sridhar Ramaswamy to discuss his first 18 months at the helm, as well as the massive pivot to make the data giant AI-first. Sridhar talks about Snowflake Intelligence, the company's new AI agent platform, and its implications for enterprise data management. They also explore how Sridhar navigates partnerships with major tech companies, how he fosters a culture of continuous improvement within the organization, and how he envisions Snowflake’s future as an integral data-driven enterprise solution. 

Sign up for new podcasts every week. Email feedback to [email protected]

Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @Snowflake

Chapters:

00:00 – Sridhar Ramaswamy Introduction

00:42 – Snowflake’s Market Adaptation

03:14 – Snowflake’s Evolution and AI Integration

05:44 – Introducing Snowflake Intelligence

09:01 – Snowflake Intelligence User Experience

11:55 – Drawing the Line Between Data, Agent System, and App

13:30 – Leadership and Organizational Changes

16:19 – How Being an Investor, Entrepreneur Informed Sridhar’s Leadership

18:50 – Importance of Product-Market Fit

22:46 – Snowflake’s Strategic Positioning

27:10 – Snowflake’s Partnership Strategy

30:20 – How Sridhar Sees the ROI of AI

35:09 – How AI Changes the Ad Model

38:15 – Why LLMs Still Need Search

42:11 – Conclusion

2025 has thus far been a year of great leaps and advances in AI technology. And Sarah and Elad have spoken with some of the most enterprising founders and scientific minds in the field of AI today. So we’re revisiting a few of our favorite conversations on No Priors so far in 2025 – Winston Weinberg (Harvey), Dr. Fei-Fei Li (World Labs), Brendan Foody (Mercor), Dan Hendrycks (Center for AI Safety), Noubar Afeyan (Flagship Pioneering), Brandon McKinzie and Eric Mitchell (OpenAI o3), Isa Fulford (OpenAI), Arvind Jain (Glen), and Dr. Shiv Rao (Abridge). 

Sign up for new podcasts every week. Email feedback to [email protected]

Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil 

Chapters:

00:00 – Episode Introduction

0:21 – Winston Weinberg on Leaning into New Capabilities

02:01 – Dr. Fei-Fei Li on Spatial Intelligence

04:13 – Brendan Foody on AI Disruption in the Workforce

06:10 – Dan Hendrycks on the Geopolitics of Superintelligence

08:06 – Noubar Afeyan on Entrepreneurship  

10:38 – Brandon McKinzie and Eric Mitchell on Reasoning Models

12:41 – Isa Fulford on Training Deep Research

13:49 – Arvind Jain on Innovating Enterprise Search

16:21 – Dr. Shiv Rao on AI’s Human Impact

18:58 – Conclusion

For decades, the developer terminal has remained largely unchanged. But for Warp CEO and co-founder Zach Lloyd, reinventing this core tool is the key to unlocking AI agents for coding, debugging, and automating the entire development process. Zach joins Elad Gil to discuss how seeing this opportunity for innovation led to Warp’s agentic terminal for developers. Zach talks about the phases of software development, from coding by hand to the current "develop by prompt" era, and the coming age of fully automated development. Plus, Zach and Elad explore the deep philosophical questions around intelligence versus consciousness in AI models, and what it would take to believe a computer program is truly aware.

Sign up for new podcasts every week. Email feedback to [email protected]

Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @zachlloydtweets | @warpdotdev

Chapters:

00:00 – Zach Lloyd Introduction

00:32 – AI, Intelligence, and Consciousness

06:55 – What Warp Does

07:38 – Benefits of the Terminal as a Launchpoint 

08:27 – Features Driving Warp’s Adoption

09:12 – Zach’s View of the Coding Market

10:27 – Evolution of Coding Development

12:45 – Importance of Senior Engineer Expertise

14:11 – Future of Security and Other Dev Tools

22:22 – Why Zach Focused on the Terminal

23:52 – The Future of the Model Layer 

25:36 – What Zach’s Excited About in the AI Dev World

27:18 – Conclusion

With demand from AI for energy already exploding, our electric grid is facing a crisis. Base Power CEO and co-founder Zach Dell is ready to re-architect its future from the ground up. Zach sits down with Elad Gil to talk about Base Power’s recent $1 billion fundraise from major investors. Zach discusses the role of energy across industries, as well as Base Power's mission to lower electricity costs through vertical integration. Zach and Elad also explore the future of energy, the role of batteries in transforming the grid, and the regulatory challenges facing the energy industry. Plus, Zach pitches why top talent should make their careers in energy generation.  

Sign up for new podcasts every week. Email feedback to [email protected]

Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @ZachBDell | @basepowerco

Chapters:

00:00 – Zach Dell Introduction

00:50 – Base Power’s Vision

02:15 – Base Power’s Products and Services 

04:00 – What Drew Zach to Working on Power

05:12 – Base Power’s Founding Team

06:58 – Base Power’s Hiring Needs

08:02 – How Zach Hired an Awesome Founding Team

09:51 – How Do We Meet Energy Demands?

12:58 – How Viable is Nuclear Energy?

17:04 – Global Energy Cost Dynamics

17:41 – Future of AI Training Centers

18:32 – What Will Drive Energy Buildout

20:38 – Drivers of Energy Transmission Cost

22:30 – Regulation and the Energy Industry 

23:52 – What Zach is Optimistic About in Energy

24:42 – Cultivating Base Power’s Culture

27:26 – Zach’s Philosophy on Capitalization

30:00 – How Base Power Uses Scale

31:57 – Conclusion

The AI industry is obsessed with making models smarter. But what if they’re building the wrong kind of intelligence? In launching his new venture, humans&, Eric Zelikman sees an opportunity to shift the focus from pure IQ to building models with EQ. Sarah Guo is joined by Eric Zelikman, formerly of Stanford and xAI, who shares his journey from AI researcher to founder. Eric talks about the challenges of building human-centric AI, integrating long-term memory in models, and the importance of creating AI systems that work collaboratively with humans to unlock their full potential. Plus, Eric shares his views on abunance and what he’s looking for in talent for humans&.

Sign up for new podcasts every week. Email feedback to [email protected]

Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @ericzelikman

Chapters:

00:00 – Eric Zelikman Introduction

00:29 – Eric’s Early Interest in AI

01:29 – Challenges in AI and Automation

02:25 – Research Contributions

06:14 – Q-STaR and Scaling Up AI

08:14 – Current State of AI Models

15:23 – Human-Centric AI and Future Directions

22:08 – Eric’s New Venture: humans&

35:33 – Recruitment Goals for humans&

36:57 – Conclusion

Between the future of search, the biggest threats in cybersecurity, and the jobs and platforms of tomorrow, Nikesh Arora sees one common thread connecting and transforming them all—AI. Sarah Guo and Elad Gil sit down with Nikesh Arora, CEO of cybersecurity giant Palo Alto Networks and former Chief Business Officer of Google, to talk about a wide array of topics from agentic AI to leadership. Nikesh dives into the future of search, the disruptive potential of AI agents for existing business models, and how AI has both compressed the timeline for cyberattacks as well as fundamentally shifted defense strategies in cybersecurity. Plus, Nikesh shares his leadership philosophy, and why he’s so optimistic about AI.

What if kids could master their academics in just two hours a day and spend the rest of their time developing real-world skills they’re passionate about? Joe Liemandt, founder of the software company Trilogy, is doing just that. Sarah Guo and Elad Gil are joined by Joe Liemandt, principal of Alpha School, to discuss his AI-driven vision of reinventing K-12 education. Joe talks about the strategies that Alpha School employs: reducing the traditional six-hour school day to two, replacing teachers with “Guides,” using financial incentives as motivation, and dedicating the remainder of the school day to project-based workshops that reflect the students’ passions. Together, they also examine Joe’s plan to scale Alpha School, the youth mental health crisis, and why edtech so far has failed.

Sign up for new podcasts every week. Email feedback to [email protected]

Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @AlphaSchoolATX

Chapters:

00:00 – Joe Liemandt Introduction

00:27 – From Trilogy to Alpha School

02:45 – How Joe Changed His Mind About Alpha School

04:16 – Reenvisioning the School Day

09:06 – An Example Day at Alpha School

20:13 – Educating Based on Motivations

22:56 – Incentives-Based Learning

24:40 – Standards for Guides

26:39 – Extrinsic vs. Intrinsic Motivators

35:12 – Tackling Learning Differences 

39:13 – Alpha School Pricing Structure

43:08 – Education Tech at Alpha School

44:54 – Rebuilding Education in the AI Age

48:43 – Reforming Education Policy

56:25 – Ed Tech as a Product

58:58 – Fixing Gaps in Education

59:45 – Why Education is Joe’s Mission

01:01:49 – Conclusion

The traditional call center may soon be a thing of the past. Jessie Zhang is building AI agents designed to replace monotonous human labor and transform how consumers interact with brands. Elad Gil sits down with Jesse Zhang, co-founder and CEO of Decagon, an AI agent company at the forefront of AI customer service. Jesse talks about how Decagon secured large enterprise clients and the impact of its AI agents, his journey as a second-time founder, and Decagon’s company culture. Plus, they discuss what the future of agentic customer service may look like.

Sign up for new podcasts every week. Email feedback to [email protected]

Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @thejessezhang | @DecagonAI 

Chapters:

00:00 – Jesse Zhang Introduction

00:30 – Decagon’s Services

01:11 – Decagon’s Customers and Growth

02:41 – Productivity Gains with Decagon

03:33 – How Decagon Integrates in Customer Workflows

04:25 – Jesse’s Second Time Founder Story

05:41 – Jesse’s Hiring Philosophy

09:13 – Counter-intuitive Advice for Founders

11:19 – How Decagon Thinks About Talent

14:12 – Areas for Longer Term Planning

15:37 – Decagon’s Path to Customer Service

16:57 – Thoughts on Pushing Into the Application Layer

19:40 – What Decagon Does Uniquely 

22:05 – Pricing Services in the AI Age

24:46 – How Decagon Sees Customer Service

25:53 – Defining Long-Term Success for Decagon

27:41 – Jesse’s Views on an Agentic Future

31:22 – Conclusion